The witness also related how another colleague told her that Mrs Cochrane had refused to enter the room with the patient, saying “I don’t do sick”.

Cochrane refused to enter the room with the patient saying, “I don’t do sick.”

Mrs Cochrane also faces a charge that she left medication for patients to self-administer at Fairknowe House.

Rosemary Coupland, manager at a care home owned by the same company, said she investigated the matter in 2013.

She said: “[She would] dispense medication, trust this person had taken the medication, go back and check they had taken it and check the medicine pot was empty.”

She said this was “not acceptable”, adding: “You’ve got a responsibility to make sure that these practices are done correctly – you’re in charge of people’s lives.”

Mrs Cochrane denies all the charges and her lawyer, Scott Flannigan, put it to Ms Kirk that much of her evidence depended on “hearsay”. She replied: “Yes.”

Mr Flannigan also questioned Ms Kirk about her claim that the ambulance took 40 minutes to arrive compared with the normal five. He suggested it could have arrived in as little as 10 minutes. Ms Kirk denied this.